Retro Spins: Jane Wiedlin - Fur

 

Following the lukewarm reception of her self-titled debut, Jane Wiedlin would spend two years carefully crafting the tracks which would become 1988's Fur. The album would fare slightly better than its predacessor, peaking at one hundred five on the Billboard 200, and produce two singles, Inside A Dream, and Rush Hour. They'd peak at fifty-seven and nine on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively.

Fur would feature a more contemporary production to her previous debut album, leaning on programmed instrumentation supplemented with electric guitar and horns. This statement is the perfect segue for my listening session.

Overall, I just felt the album was far superior to her debut. It feels more polished, and it hits that sweet spot in my 80's sounding ears. Side one kicks off with the two noted hits, before jumping into One Heart One Dream, which kind of has a Madonna vibe to me. This then goes into Homeboy, which reminds my ears of Paula Abdul. I'm not saying that Wiedlin was channeling these artists, nor would I fault her if she was. These are all good tracks.

Side one, or rather, what would be side one if I wasn't listening to it on a CD, closes with the slower paced, The End Of Love. It's serviceable, but at the same time also slows down the momentum that was being built. Fortunately, the tempo quickly picks up with side two's opener, Lover's Night, and stays there with Give!

Ironically, the title track is the weakest among the bunch. It serves no purpose other than to preach that one shouldn't wear fur. I mean, that's a fine opinion to have, but at the same time, who cares?

Wiedlin would continue her solo career, releasing 1990's Tangled, and 2000's Kissproof World. She'd also reunite with the Go-Go's in a series of reunions throughout the 90's, and the band would release 2000's God Bless The Go-Go's, an album conceived by Wiedlin.

The Go-Go's announced a farewell tour in 2010, but this would be cancelled when Jane would suffer an accident while climbing. They'd try again in 2020, only to be halted again by the worldwide house arrest (AKA the "pandemic").

In 2021 the Go-Go's were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and formally announced their breakup in 2022. They would reunite a final time, or rather, their most recent, in 2024 for a one-off performance when inducted into the California Hall Of Fame. Wiedlin would return to her solo career, with her most recent tour concluding in 2025.

On a side note, ever since my Dirty Dozens posts of records for consideration of a spot on the wall, and subsequent tour of the room, I couldn't get something out of my head. That something was the itch to own all of "Weird Al" Yankovic's 80's albums on vinyl. Specifically, to own them and put them on the wall.

I would browse for them here and there, but then seeing that they were about $100.00 each, with exception of the UHF soundtrack, which was about four times that (for some reason), I simply passed on them. I wasn't going to pull the trigger if I wasn't going to feasibly afford the soundtrack.

Well, as fate would have it, I came across three very nice "buy it now" sales on ebay. The first was for his 1986 released Polka Party!, 1988's Even Worse, and 1989's UHF. The latter was slightly higher than I wanted to pay...well, all of them were higher than I "wanted" to pay, so I put an offer out for it. I was surprised that the seller took it, but ecstatic that he did. Even better was that not only did they all arrive in the mail the exact same day, but so too did my order of frames from Michaels. Everything just lined up from start to finish!

I decided that if I was going to make the purchase that I'd have to in turn make them all work on the wall without removing anything else. I mean, every record up there was so for a reason. So, off we went to the inevitable third row.

I also moved some things around. First and foremost, to allow all six of his albums to be next to each other. Secondly, to line up Bad with Even Worse.

I don't know why I couldn't let this one go, but itch officially scratched. Now, I mean it this time! No more records for the wall!

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